Sunshine On My Shoulders

Original and similar lyrics

This song appears on twenty-one albums, and was first released on the Poems, Prayers and Promises album. This version has also been released on The Very Best of John Denver (Double CD), This Is John Denver, Reflections: Songs of Love and Life, The Country Roads Collection and The Rocky Mountain Collection albums. It has been rerecorded on the Greatest Hits Vol 1, Take Me Home Country Roads Other Hits, Favourites, Voice of America, John Denver (Italian) and Country Classics. It has been rerecorded again on the Earth Songs, The Very Best of John Denver (Single CD), The John Denver Collection - Sunshine On My Shoulder and A Portrait albums, and again on the Love Again and A Celebration of Life albums. Live versions also appear on the Live In London, The Wildlife Concert and The Best of John Denver Live albums.
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
Sunshine almost always makes me high
If I had a day that I could give you
I'd give to you a day just like today
If I had a song that I could sing for you
I'd sing a song to make you feel this way
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
Sunshine almost always makes me high
If I had a tale that I could tell you
I'd tell a tale sure to make you smile
If I had a wish that I could wish for you
I'd make a wish for sunshine all the while
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
Sunshine almost always makes me high
Sunshine almost all the time makes me high
Sunshine almost always
Words by John Denver, Music by John Denver, Dick Kniss and Mike Taylor

sunshine slipping through your fingers
i have not seen nothing
i don't like this feeling
i think i better fly
i, i get by on you
i get by on you
i get high on you
do you find it hard to face it
or do you just erase it
tell me how it feels now
what do you got to say
i, i get by on you
i get by on you
i get high on you
i, i get by on you
i get by on you
i get high on you
i, i get by on you
i get by on you
i get high on you
sunshine slipping through your fingers
tracked at Ardent
overdubbed at Treasure Isle
mixed at Vital Recordings
musicians:
Adam McGrath - drums
Eve Hill - bass
Oran Thornton - guitars
Trevor Thornton - vocals and Irish bazooki
additional musicians:
John Catchings - cello
Anthony La Marchina - cello
Kristin Wilkinson - viola
Antoine Silverman - violin
David Davidson - violin
Jennifer Kummer - French horn
Barry Greene - trombone
Jeff Coffin - sax
Mike Haynes - trumpet
bpm = 116
key = G flat

[Slug]
(Mixed vocals)
Whatta you mean what was my childhood like?
What difference does that make?
Yo, my childhood was messed up, so what?
Everybody's childhood was messed up.
This is the 90's, find me one person who had it right.
What's that got to do with me rhyming?
What's left?
[Slug]
Now when my mother died I had to take it in stride
There ain't no room for pride in watching your father cry
And dad made it until maybe a year later
When they found his suicide inside of a grain elevator
Got over it, I had no other offers or options
Thought about whether or not mom and pop was watching
Never bothered with caution, no time for fear
Saw my folks carry fear for most my early years
And I learned from it, turned numb and ignored the storm
A burning sun waiting for the world to plummet
Finished growing up under my uncle's roof
He taught me how to count all the way up to 100 proof
From watching him I learned how to gather nourishment
Living off the different women that he had to nurture him
And on the surface I became a normal pre-teen
More afraid of nuclear war than snake bites and bee stings
My best friend was my TV
Game shows and cartoons substituted for puppies, rainbows, and balloons
Now here I am, the shy type, and I think I'm doing alright
Considering what it was like living my life
Chorus (repeated)
It's nothing but sunshine
It's all sunshine
It's nothing but sunshine
[Slug]
Now it's been 17 summers since I've seen my mother
But every night I see her smile inside my dreams
When I was younger I didn't actually see the accident happen
But every night I see her smile as it shatters against the screams
I can only imagine Dad's internal reaction
Strain, inferno burning, bound in his brain
What's it take to make a man who owns acres of land
Abandon the family plan and drown himself in his grains
I'm glad I left that farm in Northern Minnesota
Where the time moves slower and the winters are colder
Became a city boy, where everybody acts like they older
Where they stick to themselves and keep a chip on they shoulder
26 years of age, no longer full of rage
I think it's safe to say I've turned a page on my childhood days
Ay yo look Ma, I'm a productive member of society
When I'm drunk I make noise, but otherwise I live quietly
And on the weekend I go back up north to reminisce
Remember what it was like pretending to be a kid
Late at night I walked the fields and lurk in the shadows
Getting even with life by murdering cattle
Cow Skit
Chorus (repeated)
It's all sunshine
It's nothing but sunshine
It's all sunshine
(And I'm gonna be alright, and you gonna be alright,
You ain't gotta hold my hand, just walk with me tonight)
Fade out
(What it is, it ain't,
and what it ain't it is,
is a theme of a Virgo)

They were farm kids way down in Dixie
Met in high school in the sixties
Everyone knew it was love from the start
One July in the midnight hour
He climbed upon the water tower
Stood on the rail and painted a 10ft heart
In John Deere Green
On a hot summer night
He wrote Billy Bob loves Charlene
In letters 3ft high
And the whole town said that he should have used red
But it looked good to Charlene
In John Deere Green
They settled down on 80 acres
Raising sweet corn, kids, and tomatos
They went together like a hand and a glove
On a clear day from their front yard
If you look and know what to look for
Off to the east you can still read his words of love
In John Deere Green
On a hot summer night
He wrote Billy Bob loves Charlene
In letters 3 ft high
And the whole town said the boy should have used red
But it looked good to Charlene
In John Deere Green
Now more than once
The town has discovered
painting over it ain't no use
There ain't no paint in the world
That'll cover it, the heart keeps showing through
In John Deere Green
On a hot summer night
He wrote Billy Bob loves Charlene
In letters 3ft high
And the whole town said the fool should have used red
But it looked good to Charlene
In John Deere Green
Ahh paint it green boy
In John Deere Green
On a hot summer night
He wrote Billy Bob loves Charlene
In letters 3ft high
And the whole town said the boy should have used red
But it looked good to Charlene
In John Deere Green
John Deere Green

(feat. Babyface, Foxy Brown)
[Jay-Z]
What, tssh, y'all, what
Jigga, uhh uhh uhh, uh-huh
Pa-pa, uhh, pa-pa, uhh
The G, Roc-A-Fella y'all
Who be, in a Japanese restaurant, eating sushi
Drinking saki, it's me, and my mami with the doobie
Cutie, smellin like Tiaka, half-Phillipine thing
For now, let's call her Suki, got me this booty bangin
Properly, in Versace pants, cocky bow-legged stance
A thing of beauty, watch me, body crazy
Tits Firm like Nature, Foxy, Nas and AZ
Truly reason to bug the toolie and keep laced in jewelry watch me
Girlie tried to lure me and lock me you gotta get up early
Cause who's gettin played is not me
'Surely you jest,' she said, 'if you thought I was purely
out for the bucks you woulda bucked stuck and dropped me'
I said maturely, 'You right
but better safe than sorry, but for the lovebirds
can move to the suburbs, I need to double check your story
To make sure that you one of a kind
And you deserve to be my Sunshine'
[Chorus: Babyface (variations not listed except for first time)]
Touch me with, a heart of gold (uh-huh)
I can't go a day without my sunshine (uh-huh) ahh-haaa (say what uhh)
Touch me with, a smile of gold (yeah)
I can't go a day without my sunshine, sunshine (uhh, uhh, uhh)
[Jay-Z, (Foxy Brown)]
A year gone, and she seein things most chicks only
hear in songs (uh-huh) keep in gear phenom
Lots of ice in the air, round the neck the charm (that's right)
Risked a four to life bid to keep that shit on her arm
Keep her impressed at all times, cats would love to creep (uh-huh)
just to say they crept with mine, slept with mine, she said
[Foxy Brown, (Jay-Z)]
I ain't deaf nor blind, niggaz stressin
Hatin cause they less than mine, they wanna sex me
We chose each other, you actin like you chose me
They oppose you then, they oppose me
We could creep at a low speed, the gat in the hosiery
Double cross you they got to triple cross me
(I'm thinking that's the way it's supposed to be) Uh-huh
(One more thing:
If I ever go broke, would you hit the block for me) Fo' sho'
(She replied, eyes open wide) Uhhhh
(Put that on everything) I put that on my life
(Right)
[Chorus]
[Jay-Z, (Foxy Brown)]
If I needed would you, give me your kidneys (Uhh, uhh, fo' sho')
Catch a case you catch it with me (Mmm, fo' sho')
Pawn your jewlery to come get me (You better know)
Catch me with a chick, forgive me (Uhh, now that, I don't know)
They spread rumors, will you defend me, tooth and nail (Uh-huh)
They try to frame me, will you be there, till the truth prevail (uhh)
(But would you be the same dude, when you blow the roof off sales
that you was, throwin rocks, at the Roof at 12, nigga)
This is the truth I shell, till the loot gets frail
I put this on my nephews, from the smallest to the pale
Me and you ballin, from the heavens, or the hell
Won't let you hit the ground if I'm fallin myself
Now picture me leavin you in this cold world, rollin for delf
It's me and you in this old girl, we takin the belt
From the lows, to the highs, to the foes we shine
Just continue to be my Sunshine (uhhh)
[Chorus 2X]

Sounds of laughter, here comes sunshine, smiling faces all around.
They possess you, bless you, sunshine, now you can never let them down, I say sunshine.
Sunshine, sunshine, is that a cloud across your smile or did you dream again last night?
It's best you rest inside a while as blue doesn't seem to suit you right.
Things ain't what they used to be, pain and rain and misery.
Illness in the family and sunshine means a lot to me, I say sunshine.
But could it be Sunshine is drifting with midnight and lonely when everyone's gone?
Blue crystal spirits and gardens in moonlight
leave weak alone and bleak all quiet and grey by dawn.
Sunshine, sunshine rising to late to chase the cold and failing to change the frost to dew.
She's trading her mood of yellow gold for frost bitten shades of silver-blue.
Friends and lovers past and gone and no one waiting further on,
I'm running short of things to be and sunshine means quiet a lot to me, I say sunshine.
Sunshine, sunshine...